"Let's face it," concluded a typical column published by the Canadian Energy Centre, the Alberta government's recently shuttered pro-oil think tank. "Canada is responsible for only 1.5 per cent of global GHG emissions. Shutting down the oil and gas industry, let alone the entire country, wouldn't have much of a worldwide impact." This perspective is prevalent in Conservative circles, but it overlooks the moral and ethical dilemma of climate change.
That’s a grade-school approach to ethics (my daughter likes to argue that even if she cleans her room, the rest of the house will remain messy), but the underlying problem is real. There are just six countries—China, the US, India, Russia, Brazil, and Indonesia—whose emissions surpass 2 percent of the global total. Everyone else is a bit player, including Canada.
The existential threat remains. The ten warmest years in human history were all in the past decade, and 2024 is on track to be the hottest year yet. Calamitous impacts are mounting everywhere.
In Canada, extreme weather caused almost $8 billion in insured losses this year, as of September, shattering the previous annual record ($6.2 billion in 2016) before summer was even over.
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